ABSTRACT
Most of this book focuses on the programmatic approach to customer visits. Only a program of customer visits can actually function as a market research technique and thus provide a true alternative to focus groups and the like. Nonetheless, there are a variety of non-programmatic approaches that can be subsumed under the heading of “customer visits that may provide listening and learning opportunities.” In general, non-programmatic visits are more useful for building a market focus than for obtaining information of the sort expected from a market research procedure. At their best, ad hoc visits can function as a kind of ongoing supplement to other attempts to gather market intelligence. This chapter focuses on what ad hoc and hybrid types of visits can accomplish. The next chapter will discuss in more detail the rationale for moving beyond ad hoc approaches toward a more programmatic approach.
